{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">There might also be found in the writings of Moses and of\r\nthe prophets, who are older not only than Plato, but even than\r\nHomer and the invention of letters among the Greeks, passages\r\nworthy of the grace of God bestowed upon them, and\r\nfilled with great thoughts, to which they gave utterance, but\r\nnot because they understood Plato imperfectly, as Celsus imagines.\r\nFor how was it possible that they should have heard\r\none who was not yet born? And if any one should apply the\r\nwords of Celsus to the apostles of Jesus, who were younger\r\nthan Plato, say whether it is not on the very face of it an\r\nincredible assertion, that Paul the tentmaker, and Peter the\r\nfisherman, and John who left his father’s nets, should, through\r\nmisunderstanding the language of Plato in his Epistles, have\r\nexpressed themselves as they have done regarding God? But\r\nas Celsus now, after having often required of us immediate\r\nassent [to his views], as if he were babbling forth something\r\nnew in addition to what he has already advanced, only repeats\r\nhimself,<a id=\"r1071\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1071\"><sup>[1071]</sup></a> what we have said in reply may suffice. Seeing, however,\r\nhe produces another quotation from Plato, in which he\r\nasserts that the employment of the method of question and\r\nanswer sheds light on the thoughts of those who philosophize\r\nlike him, let us show from the Holy Scriptures that the word\r\nof God also encourages us to the practice of dialectics: Solomon,\r\n<i>e.g.</i> declaring in one passage, that “instruction unquestioned\r\ngoes astray;”<a id=\"r1072\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1072\"><sup>[1072]</sup></a> and Jesus the son of Sirach, who has left us\r\nthe treatise called “Wisdom,” declaring in another, that “the\r\nknowledge of the unwise is as words that will not stand\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_344\">344</span>investigation.”<a id=\"r1073\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1073\"><sup>[1073]</sup></a> Our methods of discussion, however, are rather\r\nof a gentle kind; for we have learned that he who presides\r\nover the preaching of the word ought to be able to confute\r\ngainsayers. But if some continue indolent, and do not train\r\nthemselves so as to attend to the reading of the word, and\r\n“to search the Scriptures,” and, agreeably to the command of\r\nJesus, to investigate the <i>meaning</i> of the sacred writings, and\r\nto ask of God concerning them, and to keep “knocking” at\r\nwhat may be closed within them, the Scripture is not on that\r\naccount to be regarded as devoid of wisdom.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VI.","Chapter VII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-400"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"c38cbae8d7c2f11d8cb47f02369618083d861cbb40f2981857c4cb0b742ed8f5","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"SIR","chapter":21,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ecclus. xxi. 18","verse":18,"verse_end":18}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f1073","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1872 English edition; listed translators died 1889 and 1872. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f1073","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1073\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1073\">1073</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">γνῶσις ἀσυνέτου, ἀδιεξέταστοι λόγοι</span>; <abbr class=\"spell\">cf.</abbr> <abbr title=\"Ecclesiasticus\">Ecclus.</abbr> <abbr title=\"twenty-one\">xxi.</abbr> 18.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1073","text_sha256":"0cd18158878d8e634d4aee6fa1cf684de2b719a31028c765ca802d5ad73c9a25","verified":false,"work_id":null}